Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

The festival itself is horrifically organised. I felt like a sheep, not a customer.

There were only 2 good things i can think of about the festival: The Line-up and the quality of the toilets.

The campsite was bollocks:
Absolutely horse shit how they make you camp in designated areas.
No room for a communal area with friends if you have seperate tents.
No alcahol? Do they even know what a festival is?
A noise curfew? WHY?

The festival site was OK:
Not allowed back to the campsite was shit, but i see the reason behind it.

Ticket lines for WillCall etc:
Absolutely horse! 2 boxes for WillCall, when there were thousands of international visitors who HAD TO CHOOSE WILLCALL!
3 seperate tickets for each day? Ridiculous. The amount of trees cut down for 3 tickets is phenominal!

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

If you think Coachella is unorganized then you must not have ever attended a festival before. It's very organized and it works beautifully which is why I would attend even if the line up wasn't spectacular.

I was going to argue each of your points but i'll pass. Alcohol and drugs were plentiful both inside and out of the festival. Camping had showers, not sure how many times you have been camping but most camping i've done has been without those luxaries. For fuck sake they even had a general store and hot fresh food.

Camping??? How the fuck was it difficult to camp with all of your friends? I didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon and I was able to camp right next to where the dozen or so folks I met with camped. The camp councelors even asked if I needed help finding those I was meeting.

You obviously just don't like festivals. Honestly. If you are simply calling the festival site OK. Then I think you lost every single one of us with that one. Perfectly laid out seperation of stages. Lush green grass throughout, no dirt or rocks or pavement ANYWHERE in site. How do they keep those grounds so green? A backdrop of mountians and palm trees?

I'm sorry but you are out of your mind. Please stay home next time lol omg wtf lollelrssze

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

I have to agree with some of the points. The festival was excellent, but I thought the organisation was a bit haphazard. For example - the will call line - 4 hour wait to pick up tickets is ridiculous. Terribly organised. But then compare that to the campsite with designated areas? What is that about?!! maybe just a little OVER-organised. I couldn't believe my ears when I was being SHOWN where to put my tent up!
And police enforcing a noise curfew in the campsite! I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not.. It was like martial law. "Return to your tents and sleep or you will be arrested." I was pissing myself.

I see that you are from the UK too. I think maybe we're used to the festivals over here mate... I thought it was an amazing festival though, the little differences from the UK festivals wasn't enough to put me off. I'll be back next year. With alcohol for the campsite this time...

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

OMG.. I can't believe people are calling Coachella unorganized.. Shit, it's the most organized festival i've been too.. Also, this is NOT EUROPE, I'm sure it's more liberal over there, but Goldenvoice does have to deal with State Laws. I'm pretty sure as hell, they don't want to be sued.

I didn't have to wait in line for Will Call, but if the line was really that bad, it was a mistake on GV's part... but It seems that Coachella is improved every year and they learn from their mistakes.. I do not see this happening again next year.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

I had a cooler FULL of beer and like 2 ounces of weed so that was cool. As long as you were not like screaming and acting like a jackass you could stay up all night. The only complaint I have is the water situation. I wish that people would sell water by the stages that would be awsome.....

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

There was alcohol all over the place, you could have put it in water bottles and they wouldnt say anything. Showers? wow i was not expecting that but it was great especially in the morning when it was so damn hot. Best camping experience of my life. Showers at National Parks aren't even half as good as this! See you guys Coachella 08!!!

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

Goldenvoice admitted that they screwed up on Will Call this year, and they said that it's amongst their top priorities to fix it next year. They have people on this board who were responding to complaints, because they really care about this festival and the people who attend it.
And, if you showed up at camping with your friends, then it was not a big deal. They give out allotments of space to groups, so you can tent with your friends. As someone who camped before they gave out spaces, I can guarantee you that it's much nicer to have the assigned area; my first year, the line to get into camping took 5 hours, and last year when I camped it took 1, because of the organization.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

The festival itself is horrifically organised. I felt like a sheep, not a customer.

There were only 2 good things i can think of about the festival: The Line-up and the quality of the toilets.

The campsite was bollocks:
Absolutely horse shit how they make you camp in designated areas.
No room for a communal area with friends if you have seperate tents.
No alcahol? Do they even know what a festival is?
A noise curfew? WHY?

So you complain about the organization skills of GV, and then you complain about the things they have implemented to keep things organized. Make up your mind. Or just go to Bonnaroo.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

I think the fest is generally well organised; the toilets seem to be constantly being cleaned, there were enough food vendors so as to be few lines (Sasquatch could learn from this). It didn't take long for me to get in to the fest and the cops did a good job managing the traffic on the roads. I saw CHP manually working the traffic lights on Jefferson each night so as to keep the flow moving as best they could.

I didn't and won't camp onsite as I'm too fucking old to deal with the bs of smuggling a few beers in and I want to sleep at night too but I understand the allure of all night partying for some. Not allowing showers to people on Sunday night / Monday is disgraceful though.

I think the parking situation needs to be addressed in some areas and it seems the will call ticketing. Also, the technical difficulties, particularly on the Outdoor Theater this year were disappointing. Gotan Project were literally cut off mid tune. That's unfair to the artist.

Originally Posted by Cpt. Funkaho

Man, the Beatles were overrated like gravity is overrated. ......... Say what you want, but statements like "the Beatles were overrated" make me much less likely to listen to anything you say afterward.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

The festival itself is horrifically organised. I felt like a sheep, not a customer.

There were only 2 good things i can think of about the festival: The Line-up and the quality of the toilets.

The campsite was bollocks:
Absolutely horse shit how they make you camp in designated areas.
No room for a communal area with friends if you have seperate tents.
No alcahol? Do they even know what a festival is?
A noise curfew? WHY?

The festival site was OK:
Not allowed back to the campsite was shit, but i see the reason behind it.

Ticket lines for WillCall etc:
Absolutely horse! 2 boxes for WillCall, when there were thousands of international visitors who HAD TO CHOOSE WILLCALL!
3 seperate tickets for each day? Ridiculous. The amount of trees cut down for 3 tickets is phenominal!

I knew before looking at your username that you were British. You damn alcoholics.
Didn't you see how well the noise curfew worked? It didn't. I got maybe 2 hours' sleep every night. The curfew wasn't enforced where I was camping.

I'll give you Will Call, and raise you an EARLIER noise curfew. I want to sleep.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

In speaking with many others who have attened festivals in the UK/Europe, it is true that there are a lot of differences in the way the festivals are run here in the states. I hear that the water is free at some of the UK festivals (Redding?), but it's from the tap. We here in american can't do w/o our bottled filtered drinking water...being the king of capitalism, someone knows this and is going to make a ton of $ off of it.
Sounds like the festivals you are more accustomed to are somewhere between our Coachella Festival and the Burning Man Festival. At burning man, you have to bring in everything with you (and bring everything out! including trash). You also didn't see anyone burning their tents and turning their BBQ propane tanks into firebombs after the festival was over did ya? Something i hear is common at the end of some UK festivals.

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

I have an idea... Don't come next year and watch the whole thing from your computer. How's that sound? I mean seriously, there was so much alcohol and weed on the camp ground it couldn't have gotten any more festival like. Hell the fucking camping staff was walking around getting high. Stop whining, because seriously, it's getting old.

Originally Posted by clarky123

Fuck your formal education up for music and stop being a coward.

Originally Posted by braundiggity

I dunno. Lots of the arguments seem hypocritical to me. Can't we leave it simply as: I loved the shit out of it, some hated the shit out of it, and that's just how some shows go?

Re: Coachella sucks - Apart from the line-up

gv could easily solve the "partying/loudness" issue by designating one area of camping as "quiet/no partying" and implement a curfew for that area. all the partiers could party all they want. anyone who wants a quiet night of sleep could get their rest.